10 responses so far ↓

• 1 Madeleine McCarthy // Feb 18, 2014 at 3:17 pm

  Stay out of our established parks!

• 2 Steve Cannon // Feb 19, 2014 at 1:19 pm

  Dear Legislators;

  Please, for the sake of our children and grand children, tear up the draft of Bill 4. This is just madness.

  Steven Cannon
  Winlaw BC

• 3 Elizabeth Cherry // Feb 19, 2014 at 7:09 pm

  Bill 4 will blast a hole through the Park Act — and through our park system.

  Currently it is illegal to take resources or disturb land in a Class A Park without a Park Use Permit. A permit can only be granted if the Minister determines that “it is necessary for the preservation or maintenance of the recreational values of the park” and that it will not interfere with the use of the park “in accordance with its purpose.” Now, under the cloak of “research”, the proposed Bill 4 would allow the Minister to issue a permit for any kind of research, even if it will harm the park. Bill 4 does not limit the purposes for which permits may be issued.

  In July, 2013 BC Parks produced a 12-page brochure outlining the steps energy companies should take to obtain park use permits for research and drilling for pipeline routes in protected areas, and how to apply to have protected area boundaries changed to allow for road and pipeline construction. Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain natural gas pipeline expansion alone could potentially require boundary adjustment to ten parks. Then there’s the TransCanada gas pipeline, and of course, potentially, the tar sands bitumen.

  Bill 4 would wipe away special protection for small parks

  Currently park use permits cannot be given to allow resources to be taken from small parks 2,023 hectares or less in size. These small parks are often in ecologically fragmented areas, and if they are fragmented any further, they will be destroyed; such parks often harbour species at risk that can be wiped out by even a small amount of disturbance. But Bill 4 would eliminate this restriction.

  Damage could be devastating

  The TransCanada LNG pipeline would be the largest diameter pipeline (4 feet) ever built in Canada. It would require a 200-foot right-of-way strip to be logged. A major industrial access road and large gas compressor stations would have been built inside the conservancies. These would have had devastating impacts on the grizzly bears and on the ecological integrity of the whole area. Over the last year, the BC government has opened up the central-north coast to proposals for giant LNG facilities that would process natural gas transported over the mountains through pipelines from fracking projects in northeast BC, for export to China and other countries. Fracking, the process for extracting shale gas, causes massive environmental impacts. Natural gas pipes are often as small as four inches in diameter, so it would require a great number of fracking wells to sustain a four-foot pipe. Some people speculate that the intent is to make the pipes usable for tar sands bitumen.

  The corporate takeover of BC parks

  If it is passed, Bill 4 virtually means there is no really “protected” area in the province anymore. All that is required is for some corporation to apply for a “research” permit, and the government to issue a park use permit. And, as it becomes routine to allow damaging activities in parks, we may be sure that, sooner or later, the Park Act will be further “deregulated”. Minister of Environment Mary Polak says she will personally decide if an investigative-use permit will be issued for a given park. This same Minister, whose mandate is to protect our parks, is promoting Bill 4 in the press.

• 4 Colin Mackintosh // Feb 20, 2014 at 5:37 am

  A little over 20 years ago many citizens of this province sat at round tables, the Commission on Resources and the Environment(CORE), convened by the then NDP government to try and work out compromises between the resource extraction industries and the interests of other interest groups(everything from waterusers to snowmobilers to tourism reps).

  In the intervening years of “liberal” government, any hope for the preservation of our park system generated by CORE has been eroded with Bill 4 being another giant step in the direction favouring resource extraction.

  The current government’s shortsightedness evidenced by this proposed bill saddens and frustrates me negating much of the heartfelt work done by concerned citizens in the past.

• 5 Paul Charette // Feb 20, 2014 at 11:56 am

  Please make no changes to the BC Parks Act. BC Parks were specifically created to protect special areas from industrial development. It is disgusting to think that the current government would try to change the rules to allow for activities that the Parks were created to prevent.

• 6 R Faist // Feb 21, 2014 at 1:09 pm

  Dear Ms Clark and Ms Polak
  Our generation should not be the last to enjoy unspoiled areas of provincial and national splendor. We do not have that right.
  BC parks are our identity, our past and our future. They are living classrooms holding the keys to learning about Ecosystem function and our interdependence as a human species. With 11 % of the province in parks what is so compelling that you saw fit to table this legistlation?
  In the southern part of the province communities have built their economies around parks and wild spaces and now Bill 4 threatens even that.
  Although your government won the election you did not win the majority of public support and it is your responsibility to represent all British Columbians. I don’t believe BC wants it’s legacy to be the despoiler of the park system. As as a woman I am always pleased to see women in leadership positions however I also expect them to lead for future generations.

• 7 Richard Eichenauer // Feb 23, 2014 at 3:12 pm

  Dear Ms. Clark and Ms. Polak!
  You have been voted into your offices in the hope that you continue to protect those natural treasures of this province that are becoming rarer and rarer over the whole world: Landscapes that have not been invaded by industrial activities that spoil and ruin those lands, destroy their peacefulness, their serenity and their uniqueness, including the myriads of other life forms that make this planet what it really is: a gem in the universe, because we haven’t come across anything like it in all our astronautical exploration, and are not likely to ever will.
  In our untouched parks, we can appreciate what es getting lost more and more in our industrial/mercantile way of life. Our skyscrapers, subways, museums, operas, etc. can never hold or replace that which we humans can not create: the natural wonders of this planet. And those places, namely our parks, are still the only places that can heal our schizophrenic ways by showing us the wholeness of ourselves with our world.
  Please leave our parks untouched by the exploitations of industries that have no ethics.

• 8 Jeff Hammerich // Mar 4, 2014 at 10:24 pm

  We need forward thinking politicians in power making well thought out decisions to benefit everyone and all stakeholders. I agree resource extraction is a big part of our economy and provides numerous economic benefits, but…..
  if this bill gets passed I feel we are opening Pandora’s box to develop in areas that we have already decided that were off limits. SUPERNATURAL BC-this is BC’s claim to fame, let’s keep it that way.

• 9 Chris Barrington-Leigh // Mar 5, 2014 at 5:52 pm

  Drastic changes to the ownership and protection of public assets should require super-majority votes, assent of courts, and direct democracy. Wholesale giveaways and removals of long-held protections should not be possible by a simple government. In this case, this is a rogue move and would do damage to BC’s long term reputation, tourism, and special character. Moreover, it removes the clarity of division between protection and areas which are available for resource exploitation.

• 10 Natasha Miles // Mar 5, 2014 at 6:51 pm

  As a new Canadian citizen and eight year resident of BC I have enjoyed the extensive park system in this province. I have hiked, camped, and kayaked at all the far reaches of the points of the compass and marvel at the beauty, majesty and variety that the province has determined to protect for perpetuity. Anything that will allow noise, disruption, environmental degradation and pollution into these parks must not be allowed. Therefore Bill 4 must not be passed as it allows for a backdoor route to resource development. BC is big enough to keep this out of our parks.

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